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Fake Light Sabers Making Real Cash
jdedman4 writes "The fanfare over Episode II brings with it absurdist prequel theories as well as this article from the Houston Chronicle detailing one fan-enterpreneur's success. In eight years, Forney, Texas resident Jeff Parks has made himself a millionaire by making customized light sabers for collectors. "My goal is to be the best light saber designer in the world," quips Parks."
Doesn't he have to be a licensed Star Wars toy distributor?
Yeah they are cool looking and all, but if they dont make the sound whats the point.
Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
Supply and Demand continues to be an economic principle!
"Parks is not affiliated with LucasFilms, Ltd., the maker of the Star Wars movies, but he has sought a relationship. Six months ago, he lost a contract bid to be the official licensed manufacturer of Star Wars light sabers to Master Replicas."
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html
...but not strong enough to withstand a slashdotting!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
He makes the most kickass lightsabers out of plumbing stuff from the hardware store. I remember one of them used a shower head...
As far as I know he doesn't go out looking to sell them but when he had a few and he was showing them off someone went up to him and bought one anyway..
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Ahhhh the slashdot effect. Crushing absurdist prequel theories' web sites in seconds.
*waves hand*
"This isn't the company you're looking to sue"
"move along lucas"
.
I felt a disturbance in the force as if all of parksabers.com's 56 kilobits of uplink all screamed at once and then died out.
I've come across his site before, and left drooling slightly. Those are freggin nice suckers, and I must say that I'm extremely impressed with his abilities.
I would even the steep price tag more or less justifiable, considering the impress-your-friends factor. People spend more on PDAs. But... well, what good is a replica light saber if you can't saber duel with yer buddies? The specs mention that the plasma lamp is encased in a virtually indestructible polycarbonate (actually, it reads "polycarbonite," which is either a typo or a clever pun) housing.
Well, polycarbonate is the same stuff they use to make high quality scratch resistant "virtually indestructible" eyeglass lenses. Quite a few of which I have personally destructed. So, I wonder how well the "blades" stand up to thwackin'.
-ks
The angel in the oatmeal.
An interesting note on lightsabers; They are actually flash handles from 1940s press cameras. What bearing that has on copywrites, I'm not sure, but I think it'd be hard to licence a garage sale part for your movie, personally. Maybe this guy's calling them "lite sabers". Of course, you see dozens of toy replicas made in Mexico in any toy store... "Galactic Laser Swords inc." If you can get away with that level of duplication, then it can't be too hard for this guy. More power to him. Now he just needs to make a working one ^__^ "Batteries not included"
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Well, at least they acknowledge where in their customers' psyches the deep-rooted need to own one of these things stems by naming one of their top models Malestrom as opposed to Maelstrom. I wonder if any of their customers notice this subtle dig?
More worringly, I wonder what a Femalestrom would look like?
(!) "This isn't the company we're looking to sue..."
"Let's move along and make another sequel."
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Dang it! Someone has beat me to the lucrative market of making completely inconsequential items for insane amounts of money! Curses! My plans for world domination.....crushed....
...now to take over the world by selling fast food, containing a minute dose of alkaloid...completely harmless, but absolutely addictive!
*Sigh* So much evil, so little time
"To make apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan
The sabers need special materials for them. The Obi-Wan saber needed a rare British grenade, a shower head, and a few other materials. All the other ones (from the original movies, at least) need camera attachments for flashbulbs, with wiper blades and little electronic bits attached, for the most part. The camera attachments are reasonably expensive now, and are moderately rare.
So how did this guy find all the rare goodies to make all these things to become a millionaire off of them? He must have been awfully rich to begin with.
Anonymous Coward: (n.) 1. nerd at school or library. 2. karmawhore in training. 3. embarrased prep.
The 33-year-old resident of Forney, 20 miles east of Dallas, makes custom light sabers,
Huh?
weapons used by Jedi knights in the Star
Wars films.
Ohhhh...
Also, on Parks' website, you can get a utility belt! I thought it was funny that it lists it as The DefianceTM Belt, Adjustable to fit sizes 32-40. I think he's grossly underestimated his clientelle...
"Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
Mmmm. Star Wars Products that don't line the pockets of George Lucas. Mmmmm
And now his sales will tipple. Anyone else remember what happened after thinkgeek.com was slashdotted? I wonder when we'll have the parksabers.com box as an option. What will the icon be when he comes out with a new model???
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
More powerfull then a any hacker /.
Faster then a speeding DoS Attack
Able to quelch tall servers with a single post
Its a bird its a plane no its
Personal Website
One million in eight years is $125K a year which isn't bad but he has two employees (dad and fiancee). Instead he sounds like a hardworking guy.
That sight made User Fiendly's Link of the Day last week. Was Slashdot scooped by a comic strip? ;)
The dogcow says "Moof!"
as if a million webservers cried out and were silenced...
You must have missed this detail
"I had purchased a saber from a company that is now out of business," said 29-year-old Anthony Minichino of Brick, N.J. "Parks came along and had complete original designs. Some of them had working blades, which I'd never seen before."
Which is something to give me pause...
Working?
Just what we need for our special forces in Afghanistan.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The blade part doesn't look right (too thin). I wonder if he could fix that.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Here's the master replica website in case you want to actually see the official replica saber, complete with a quicktime movie demo of one in action.... at least it satisfied my curiosity while the park sabers site is being slashdotted.
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
I realize the light saber of Star Wars is impossible for what we know now, but does anyone have anything to say or any URL's about possible light saber like weapons that actually work? What would it take? Come on geeks, if you can mod a case enough to make a dual athlon not overheat in 3 seconds, surely you can figure out a way to make a big thick laser beam capable of cutting through a car.
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
Hey,
Minichino, who bought his Arc-Wave in 1999, also likes the touch-sensitive button that turns on the light panel and blade.
Yeah, they are the best type.
(You see? It's funny!)
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
He should use some of that $1 million to buy a new webserver.
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
if you read.. you'll see he's not making authentic replicas of the original props.. but rather just cool looking light-saber like thingys.
BTW.. people selling props made out of the same parts as original props (You have to love how creative they were back then) are selling sabers for well over a grand.
of forcing the public to become customers by new legislation
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
So yeh, that would probably work with Lucas, if the last two movies are any indication of his mental capability...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
That site has no adds, and is still up. It must be a paid account or something.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Can't people read?
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Parks makes the replicas to look faintly like versions used in the movies. They are typically aircraft aluminum, and are very, very tough and scratch resistant. Some are designed for a blade, others just hang on your belt and make people ask if it works.
The item I have is based on Luke's first/the Graflex design. It serves its purpose well enough for the costume during the occasional con or costume party. If you want a "lightsaber" of your own, Jeff does a good job.
Lucasfilm generally does not chase down anyone who avoids the use of trademarked names and likenesses or is otherwise obviously capitalizing on his vast empire. Otherwise, people who make costume templates and accessories, especially the stormtrooper stuff and droid parts, would be sued immediately.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
...after a few feet, so it doesn't shine forever like a laser pointer? And what about the thickness of the beam? Would a beam an inch thick be more dangerous to look at? Is it even possible? Would it do any cutting, or would it be just like a thick laser pointer?
c-hack.com |
Luke... I slash dotted your site!
This is the old axiom of "Never bring a Knife to a gun fight"
In which regard, it is interesting to read an early draft of Stars Wars, dated 1975
[NB - the Luke in this script seems to be different than the "StarKiller" character, as seen from the very final scenes]
Goes hand in hand with the adages:
- Never throw shit at a man with a gun
- Never stand beside a man throwing shit at a man with a gun
- Never stay in a house with a man who is throwing shit at a man with a gun
- etc.
You get the idea"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
My university is running a research project on "tracking 3D textured object in the presence of aspect changes". Using a computer, a camera and holding a box in your hand, you can animate a light saber.
;o)
Here is information about the project and this is an image of the laser sabre in action.
Here is a movie (37Mb) showing it in action.
Now, all you have to do is to buy the handle from parksabers.com to get the real feeling
Yoda's lightsaber will be released on July 1st.
"Glowing electro-luminescent blade and authentic sound effects pulled directly from the movie" sounds very interesting and would be a good addition to my Lightsaber key chain.
I run a photography website (actually, one of the first photography websites), Graflex.org.
Lucas used a Graflex flashgun to make the light sabre prop, and as a result photographers and camera collectors have seen prices rise absurdly, now to hundreds of dollars for old flashbulb equipment that used to be available for $5-$15.
And furthermore, some of the folks who buy them are belligerent and abusive. I guess if they think you can become a millionaire, I understand now.
You mean like the original version of Coca-Cola?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
The potential cross-over product between the Lightsaber and sex toy industry. Click here to check out Count Dooko's Lightsaber and see what I mean.
"I'm The Bounty Bear. I will find him anywhere. I'm searching."
And it would be even better if it made the lightsaber noise when in use rather than the usual scredriver sound.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Ahhhyes, the moderator in question must (a) have a truly microscopic penis, and/or (b) one of the lightsabers written about in the article, because he modded me down even more! Wow, Slashdot hecklers are worse than those in Vegas! When you die at the Palace, you DIE at the Palace... But hey, you have oh, 2 mod points left, and I can keep posting so it'll keep showing, try and silence me, slug! And I have karma to burn too! So NYAH!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Nah, that's why they drive SUVs... Warning, completely humorless small penised /. mods a'coming, act busy, you've seen NOTHINNNNG!
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!